"There's rhyme, reason and purpose to everything. Pay attention!"

Leadership is…..

So what’s a leader to do? To quote a friend of mine, and a leader I respect: “That’s the goal – we all need to look good. My philosophy in running projects with multiple folks/organizations involved is that if one fails, we all fail. That makes us all feel part of a team!!” Joe Benedict

This was an email response to a person on our team complimenting our very organized Joe on some work he’d done for the team. You’ve likely heard many other posts about teamwork, read books about it, experienced both good and bad teamwork. “Teams” has gotten a lot of press over the last decade, so much so that I sometimes cringe when I hear the word. But it has load of truth in it.

We are all part of some team somewhere. I haven’t known a single soul who has accomplished much all by themselves. And in highly functioning teams we all serve in different roles at different moments in time – and if we are a really good team, the leadership role shifts from one person to another as needed.

The challenge for some leaders is to give up the title and responsibility of ‘leader’ when someone else on the team becomes the leader (for one meeting, for the day, for the week, or even becomes a co-leader). The act of letting go can be difficult for some. But I’ve found the more I practice letting go the better it feels. I actually can feel the burdens I’ve felt before being lifted and shared by others.

So what’s the goal for a leader?

make everyone on your team look good

assure everyone on your team has all the information they need to make good decisions

provide the tools your team needs to do their part of the task at hand